The subject matter disclosed herein relates to separating components of a powder mixture and, in particular, to methods for using magnets to separating non-magnetic metal particles within a powder mixture.
Various industrial parts, such as engine parts are made by pressing a powder material into a die. The quality, strength, etc. of the industrial part is therefore related to the quality of the powder used to make it. Methods of preparing this powder may result in contaminant particles being deposited along with the industrial-use powder material in a powder mixture. Methods have been designed for removing the contaminants from the resulting power mixture by magnetic separation of the particles. However, current magnetic separation methods are ineffective when the powder meant for industrial use and contaminants in the powder mixture are non-magnetic.